Collective Identity and Practices of Citizenship in Postcommunism

Collective Identity and Practices of Citizenship in Postcommunism - Call for Papers

Conference venue: Wroclaw (Poland)
Period: Feb. 22-23, 2013
Deadline for submitting abstracts: Sep. 30, 2012
Deadline for submitting full papers: Jan. 31, 2013 

Description of the Conference

With the start of the democratic transition, many post-communist countries started institutional changes and state-building processes. Although these transformations touched upon the issue of citizenship, one can ask whether practices have also changed. This conference aims at gathering scholars in order to discuss practices of citizenship in post-communist countries.
The organizers of the conference are specifically calling for works that address practices of citizenship with a comparative approach that takes into consideration changes occurred since the beginning of the 1990s with the dissolution of socialist federations. Other changing factors to be included in the research works are population dynamics as migration and resettlement after warfare, amendments to citizenship regimes, including issuing passports to ethnically kin folks and granting extraterritorial citizenship.
The impact of these factors on practices of citizenship in post-communist countries should be reflected in the proposed papers. Departing from the discussion on the concept of citizenship (e.g. T.H. Marshal, W. Kymlicka), its contemporary relevance (e.g. Y. Soysal, D. Miller) and its application in Central and Eastern Europe during democratic transition (e.g. R. Brubaker, M.M. Howard), we are particularly interested in contrastive analyses of continuities and changes in practices (political participation, civic education, community activities) related to formal criteria defining citizenry (citizenship status, passport).
The role of civic education in framing citizenries during and after democratic transition. Papers reflecting on the role of formal and informal education, cooperation between individuals through social, political and cultural networks are particularly welcome. Social, political and cultural practices as practices of active citizenship will also be analyzed. Papers can deal with policies of education and policy initiatives, with a special emphasis on civil society involvement. Not only local and domestic, but also regional and European dynamics will be discussed by international scholars at the conference. 

Eligible topics for the conference

Selection of key issues to be discussed:

• Conceptual and theoretical changes of focus in understanding the post-communist citizenship
• Institutional/legal developments of citizenship in the post-communist countries with a focus on controversies
• The role of transformation processes for the citizenship practices in those countries
• Practices of citizenship and social coherence in the countries in question
• Citizenship and civic education (the role of the education system vis-à-vis citizenship)
• Post-communist citizenship and nationalism (Is there a ‘crisis of the hyphen’ in post-communist countries?)
• Power and citizenship in the post-communist countries (the role of inequality and class stratification)
• The impact of external actors such as the Russian Federation, the U.S. or the EU on the citizenship practices in post-communist countries

Guidelines for submission

Please submit your paper proposal to the organisers via this link.

Organizer

• University of Wroclaw
• University of Potsdam

Information & contacts

Prof. Ireneusz Pawel Karolewski
Willy Brandt Center for German and European Studies, University of Wroclaw and University of Potsdam
e-mail: karolewski@wbz.uni.wroc.pl